“My instincts tell me that’s what’s going on but I don’t ask that question directly,” said Rose Mertz, envoy in charge at the Salvation Army shelter at 520 W. 13th St. “But why else would someone come here without any job or family connections?”

Ann Stattelman, director of Posada emergency services, said some new arrivals acknowledge they’ve come here for legal marijuana. Her staff put the figure at between 50 and 75 people in the past few months.

“In some cases, they’ve even left jobs and housing behind to come to Colorado,” said a Posada outreach worker.

While news reports have shown out-of-state people cheerfully in line at Pueblo County marijuana stores, those people haven’t said they intend to stay here. But some are.

“And the last thing we need is all that media coverage telling people marijuana is available here,” Mertz added.

Stattelman said Posada cannot allow any illegal drugs — and marijuana still is illegal under federal law — because the agency receives federal funding.

“Our role is to serve Pueblo families first. But homeless people are coming here because the state has legalized marijuana,” she said.

Posada shelters homeless women and families, the Salvation Army single men. The latter can sleep 50 men at night in its shelter.

“We haven’t had to turn anyone away but we’ve been close to full several nights,” Mertz said.

The Pueblo Rescue Mission, 728 E. Fourth St., has 26 beds for men and 16 for women, but uses cots to add another 14 men at night. The shelter has been full — at least on the men’s side — every night for nearly two years, according to its director, Greg Coolidge.

“I think it might be too early to say what impact marijuana is having,” he said Monday. “But we’re always full and have been for a long time.”